The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD2951xC776/co37 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/HD2951xC776/co37 208 CONSUMERS' COOPERATION THE CHRISTIAN REGISTER, October 22, "Religion and Distribution," Edward A. Filene. "Schenectady Cooperative Studies Burial Costs." THE CHRISTIAN LEADER, October 10. "Con- cerning Cooperatives and Private Business," Charles G. Girelius. September 26, "Building a Cooperative," James W. McKnight. October 24, "Religion and Distribution," Ed ward A. Filene. THE PRESBYTERIAN TRIBUNE, October 29, "Religion and Distribution," Edward A. Filene. THE SIGN, September, "Let's Cooperate," Law rence Lucey. THE QUEEN'S WORK, November, "Sodality Consumers Cooperatives Stop Bolting Budgets," George A. McDonald, S. J. CATHOLIC ACTION OF THE SOUTH, Octo ber 15, "Consumers' Cooperation, How It Starts," Joseph H. Fichter, S. J. THE FRONT RANK, November, "Ideals in Cans," Frances Dunlap Heron. EPWORTH HERALD. September 5, "Working for a Christian Economic Order," Dorothy Ny- land. KIPLINGER NEWS LETTER, September 26, "Talk of Consumers Cooperatives." TRADE PUBLICATIONS NATIONAL PETROLEUM NEWS, October 7, "Co-op Bulk Plants in Minnesota," E. L. Bar- ringer. SALES MANAGEMENT, October 20, "Behind that Co-op Label," Bertram B. Fowler. PRINTERS INK, October 15, "What is a Co operative?" Richard Giles. TIDE, October 1, "Co-op Coup." HARDWARE RETAILER, November, "Whole salers Condemn Government Subsidies to GO ODS," "Don't Worry Too Much About Co-ops," Editorial on Cooperative Congress. THE GASÇLINE RETAILER, October 17, "Roosevplt's Endorsement of Co-ops Alarms Station Men." I.P.A. (Independent Pharmacists Ass'n) VOICE, October, "Cooperatives—Are They Our Com petitors?" David N. Ditcher. RESTAURANT MANAGEMENT, October, "Cafeteria Principles and Practices \Vhen Oper ated by Consumers," R. T. Huntington; "The Customers Speak," Editorial—"Who Profits?" DRUG TOPICS, August 17, "Stores in Cleveland Compete with 17 Co-ops." NEWSPAPERS NEW YORK TIMES, September 30, "American Co-ops Praised by Finns." October 6, "Cooperatives Gain in Europe Noted." HERALD TRIBUNE, October 6, "Head of Eng lish Cooperatives Here to Further Tj ç terests." u> ill- October 19, News story under the column "T Week in Finance," Edward H. Collins. ' e CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, Octob "Consumers Cooperatives Target of O,v, '• Mid-West Drive." Ur9an,Zed "Cooperative Buying by Farmers Gain« n Past Decade." Uv« "Sunday Teaching, All-the-Week Need"-. port of Edward A. Filene's speech_"Rpi- ."" and Distribution." l9'011 UNITED STATES NEWS, August 24, -c sumer Co-ops: Can They Cure Economic Up" MILWAUKEE LEADER, "Workers Awaken tn Lack of Consumers Cooperatives," Irvin ? Aaron. NEW BOOKS Several important new books on the cooperative movement have been published since we last went to press. Since it is impossible to review them in this issue, we are listing below those which may be ordered now through The Cooperative League THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE YEAR BOOK- 1936, Edited by V. S. Alanne and Cecil R Crews. The latest available statistics on con sumers cooperative associations in the United States. 260 pages, paper cover, $1.00. DENMARK—THE COOPERATIVE WAY, by Frederic C. Howe. A description of the Danish cooperative movement as an alternative to Com munism and Fascism. Coward McCann, 272 pages, $2.50. CONSUMERS COOPERATIVE ADVEN. TURES, Harland J. Randall and Clay J. Dag- gett. Case studies of consumers cooperative edu cation and business organizations in Great Britain and the United States. Prepared for use in Wisconsin schools and colleges. Whitewater Press, 642 pages, $2.00. BROTHERHOOD ECONOMICS, Toyohiko Kagawa, Dr. Kagawa's Rauschenbush Lectures on "Christian Brotherhood and Economic Re- I construction." presented for the first time in book form. Harper & Brothers, 200 pages, $1.50. CO-OP, Upton Sinclair. A novel of living together. Cast in the realistic setting of a producers, "self- help" cooperative in California. Farrar and Rinehart, 426 pages, $2.50. DEMOCRACY IN DENMARK, Josephine Gold- mark and A. H. Hollman, translated by Alice 0. Brandeis. A description of the cooperatives, so- cial insurances and folk high schools in Denmark. National Home Library, 342 pages, 25c. FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS OF DENMARK, Beg- trup, Lund and Manniche. Revised edition^M^ popular volume on Danish Folk Schools. University Press, 176 pages, $1.00. INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER, a quarterly devoted to the Peoples School ment, edited by Peter Manniche, Inforl Peoples College, Elsinore, Denmark, two years. CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL ORGAN Of The Consumers' Cooperative Movement in tKe U. S. A. VOLUME XXIII January—December 1937 Published by The Cooperative League of U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City ßaivaaja Print, Fitchburg, Mass. INDEX CONSUMERS' COOPERATION PAGE Advertising and Cooperation ..................................................... 135 American Federation of Labor ............................................. 12, 28, 175 Albrecht, Arthur E. ............................................................ 48 Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments ......................................... 61, 77 American Farmers Mutual Auto Insurance Association .............................. 109 American Institute of Cooperation ................................................ 124 Arnesen, Randoff ............................................................... 37 Arnold, Mary and Reed, Mabel .................................................. 164 Australia Cooperation in ......................................................... 181 Aziere, Charles B. .............................................................. 81 B Baker, Jacob ................................................................ 68, 111 Barrett, George G. ............................................................... 130 Barton, John R. ................................................................. 125 Bates, Emily C. ................................................................ 69 Barclay, Wade Crawford ....................................................... 56 Beaton, Neil S. ................................................................. 1 Benjamin, R. N. .............................................................. 73, 113 Book Club, Cooperative ........................................................ 190 Book Reviews ................................................. 14, 31, 47, 95, 111, 128 Bookkeeping for Cooperatives, A Primer of ........................................ 175 Bowen, E. R. ................................................................... 125 Bovd, Neva .................................................................... 129 British Cooperative Conaress .................................................... 106 British Cooperation and Stateism ................................................. 147 British Labor Movement ......................................................... 24 Broadcasting Cooperation ............................................. 29, 91, 146, 160 Brown, Martin W. ............................................................. 137 Builder, The ................................................................... 46 Bureau of Cooperative Medicine .................................................. 127 Burial Cooperatives ............................................................. 104 C California, Cooperation in ....................................................... 79 California Cooperative Wholesale, Oakland .................................... 110, 126 Campbell, W. J. ................................................................ 159 Canada, Cooperation in .......................................................... 126 Carpenter, J. Henry ............................................................ 192 Central Cooperative Wholesale ..... 1, 11, 13, 76, 109, 125, 126, 141, 144, 151, 155, 174, 175 Central States Cooperative League ................................................ 91 Chase, Stuart .................................................................. 175 Chicago, Cooperation in ............................................... 30, 46, 77, 117 Childs, Marquis W. ............................................................. 112 Church and Cooperation ..................................................... 155. 179 Uoquet Cooperative Society .................................................... 6, 11 Coady, M. M. .................................................................. 164 Associations, Cooperative .................................................. 30 ge Cooperatives ............................................ 78, 140, 142, 153, 191 "ege Courses in Cooperation ...................................... 28, 47, 92, 93, 186 mmunity Hospital, Elk City, Oklahoma ..................................... 94, 128 nnecticut, Cooperation in ...................................................... 79 Distribution Corporation ........................................... 127, 154 Cooperative Services, New York City ............................. 109, 143 Cooperatives Associated, Amarillo, Texas ............................ 27, 108 INDEX INDEX Consumers Cooperative Association, North Kansas City 12, 27, 50, 60, 61, 62, 77, 126 174 HP Cook, Philip ............................................................ ' *• 88 Cooley, Oscar ...........................................................':."••• " Cooperative Distributors ............................................. 13, 79, Ho 7! Cooperative Education Association, Pasadena, California ......................... 28 141 Cooperative Life Insurance Company of America ................................ ' ^ Cooperative Month ........................................................ ' ,?. Cooperative Wholesale, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois .................... 91, 108, 118, '152, Jgg Cooperators Life Association ................................................ ' ,,. Cort, E. G. ................................................................ 124, jïï Courses in Cooperation, Training ........' ™ Cowden, Howard A. Cowling Ellis Credit Unions .. Crews, Cecil R. .. 103, 126, 143, 1 .......... 49, D Davis, Henry ............................ Dawber, Mark A. ........................ Debate Subjects .......................... Delta Cooperative Farm, Rochdale, Mississippi Democratic Control in Cooperation .......... Denmark, Cooperation in ................... Discussion Circles ......................... Douglas, Paul H. .......................... Drury, James C. .......................... 3, 34, .. 184, .. 124, 117 192 97 155 149 111 190 192 81 E Eastern Cooperative League ............................................. 29, Eastern Cooperative Wholesale ...................................... 108, 141, Education in Cooperation ............................. 4, 85, 100, 104, 119, 153, Education, New Advance in Cooperative ..................................... Edwards, Ellen ............................................................. Electricity Supply ........................................... 11, 17, 27, 77, 93, Elliott, Sydney R. .......................................... 95, 111, 125, 142. Employees, Labor Organization of Cooperative ............................. 70, Employees, Training of Cooperative Officers and ............................... Evanston, Illinois, Consumers Cooperative ..................................... 188, 190 143, 153 171, 183 .... 20 .... 95 127, 155 145, 161 108, 109 .... res 56, 101 108 33 Failor, Clarence W. ............................................................. Farm and City Coopératives .......... ... ....................................... Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company .......................... 143, 188 Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union, Nebraska ............................. 46 Farmers Union Education Service, Jamestown, N. D. ................................ 174 Farmers Union Central Exchange, Saint Paul, Minn. .............................. 11, 78 Farmers and Cooperation ......... 'r.......................................... 124, 191 Farm Tenancy ........................................................ 26, 34, 36. 49 Federal Trade Commission ..................................................... 2, 47 Filene, Edward A. .......................................................... 163, 189 191 Films . Goldmark, Josephine, and Brandeis, Alice G. Grange Cooperative Wholesale, Seattle, Washington Great Britain, Cooperation in ..................... •• H> "" ~. PAGE 154, 160 ,. 50, 69 H Consumers Cooperative Association, Pennsylvania Health Association; Hedberg, Anders . - William Cooperative Hod Robin ... Housing, Cooperative Hull I-H. ••••••••• Hutchinson, Larl 81 95 108 101 13, 45, 47, 94, 110, 127, 137, 153, 160, 176 ..... 145, 155, 175 ............... 95 ............... 69 61, 77, 107, 130, 163 ............... 18 156 .................................. 33: Howe, Frederic C .............................................................. ni "Weals and Problems, Cooperative," Anders Oerne .................................. 192 i Jiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association '...................... 11, 12, 27, 47, 92, 143 Sal Conflicts-Strikes ...................................................... 192 Institutes ................................... H, 12, 88, 94, 108, 109, 110, 139, 158, 174 Institute, Cooperative League ................................................ 139, 174 Insurance ........................................ 12, 60, 77, 78, 110, 143, 153, 155, 162 Insurance Cooperative Agency, Marshfield, Wisconsin ............................. 110 International Trading ................................................... 106, 133, 152 International Cooperative Alliance ........................................ 142, 146, 177 Isanti County Cooperative Association, Cambridge, Minnesota ........................ 102 J [ohansson, Albin ................................................................ 133 Jones, E. Stanley ............................................................... 50 K Kagawa, Toyohiko .......................................................... 14, 96 KaDen, Horace M. .............................................................. 126 fondai Eric ................................................................... 6 Knapp, Joseph G. ............................................................... 124 Knickerbocker Village Cooperative, New York City ................................. 191 Finance Cooperatives ........................................................... "Find Your Lobster" ............................................................ 1{» Fowler, Bertram B. ........................................................... L 8 Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association, Minneapolis .................-..-•-••• ™ Gary Cooperative Trading Company, Illinois ....................................... }., "ay, fj Gibson, George ........................................................-•••••••.£, ™cGow; Gasoline and Oil Cooperatives .............................. 11, 27, 28, 92, 102, 162. 1W - — - -. *~. .... Ill Labor and Cooperatives ....................................................... 52, Laidler, H. W. and Campbell, W. J. .............................................. Landis, Beason Y. .......................................................... 161, Laski, Harold .................................................................. Legislation on Cooperation ................................. 107, 130, 140, 155, 161, Lewis, E. St. Elmo ............................................................... Lincoln, Murray D. ............... ............................................. Lind, Iver . Lloyd, William B., Jr. ........................................................... M Madison, Wisconsin, Consumers Cooperative ....................................... 110 Marketing Cooperation .......................................................... 9 &• Henry J. .................................................................. 101 «cbowan, R. A. . ........................... 52 *at Cooperatives '.'.'..'..'.'.'.....'...'.'.'...'.'....'...'.....................'..........'.. 191 «edicine Bureau of Cooperative (see Health Associations) ........................ 13 Cooperation in .......................................................... 142 70 159 163 4 174 17 161 102 123 INDEX Midland Cooperative Wholesale ............................ 26, 46, 61, 89, 125, Milk, Cooperative Distribution of ...................................... je Mitchell, John T. W. .................................................... Model State Law ........................................................ Morgan, Joy Elmer ....................................................... Murray, Robert .......................................................... Mutual Cooperative Insurance Association, Superior, \Visconsin ............... Myers, James C. ......................................................... INDEX PAGE 9. 23 132 100 61 19 101 12 97 N .. National Cooperatives, Inc. ................................................ 62, 108 Nebraska Farmers Union ................................................... | - Negroes in Cooperation ............. ..................................... "^ :j New Cooperative Company, Dillonvale, Ohio .................................. '27 'ir! Newfoundland, Cooperation in .............................................. ' ..^ New Zealand, Cooperation in ................................................" , Norgaard, James C. ........................................................ Northern States Cooperative League ....................................... 87, 158 Norway, Cooperation in .................................................. ' ' , Nourse, E. G. .............................................................;"" ,7' Nova Scotia, Cooperation in ................................... 17, 50, 84, 90, ' Ï64, jgj o Gerne, Anders ................................................................ j^ Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Association ............ 11, 60, 93, 108, 152, 153, 174, 191 Oil and Gasoline Associations ............................................... 30, 77 91 Olds, Leiand ................................................................ jj Overstreet, Harry A. ........................................................... 113 Parodneck, Meyer .......................................................... 149 Peace .................................................. 17, 34, 107, 113, 145, 162, 177 Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperative Association .......................... 12, 61, 152 Perkins, Lionel ................................................................. 106 Plays, Cooperative ............................................................. 187 Politics and Cooperation ........................................................ H7 Popular Front .................................................................. 50 Producers Cooperation .......................................................... 9 Purchasing Cooperatives ......................................................... 9 Pratt, Eliot D. .................................................................. 31 President's Commission of Inquiry on Cooperation in Europe ...................... 53, 66 Press Boosts Consumer Cooperatives ............. 15, 31, 48, 64, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 176 Price Control ....................................................... 73, 82, 133, 180 Publicity and Education .................................................... 119, 120 Q Quotations Regarding Cooperation ....................................... 81, 97, 98, 113 R Racine Consumers Cooperative, Wisconsin ................................. 46, 143, Randall, H. J. and Daggett, C. J. .................................................. Range Cooperative Federation, Virginia, Minn. ..................................... Recreation, Cooperative .................................... 123, 156, 172, 185, 187, Regli, W. E. ................................................................... Revolution, The World's Greatest ................................................ Resolutions on Cooperation ........................................... 28, 47, 61, Reynolds, Quentin .............................................................. Rochdale Principles ............................................................. Rohrbough, Lynn ............................................................... Roosevelt, Mrs. F. D. ........................................................... Rosenblum, Marc B. ............................................................ Rothery, Agnes ................................................................. 153 M 143 192 175 41 175 125 177 172 142 159 111 Xavier University, Nova Scotia ......................................... 84 :ion in ...................................................... 34, 54 on Coopération ............................................ 126, 139, 168, 174 £. M. ............................................................. 94, 128 c nish .. County Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, Pa. ......................... 141 David E. ............................................................ 31 Cooperators .......................................................... 3, 100 Consumers Cooperative, Massachusetts ................................. 108 Oa,h ............................................................ 180 Organizations (see College Cooperatives) ................................. 12, 28 Clubs and Circles ............................................ 3, 17.20, 100, 164 ^oreme Court and the Farmer, The" ............................................ 36 Sweden, Cooperation in ........................................... 23, 34, 50. 100, 175 Trade Unions and Cooperation ................................................. 24, 92 Terminology, Cooperative ...................................................... 9, 63 Thompson, Glenn W. .......................................................... H 9 ^Cooperative '.'.".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.".".".".'.".'.".".".'.'.".'.'.".'.".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.' Ï2, ' î8," 63. 79, ' 80.' 96. 'l54. 186 U United Cooperative Society, Maynard, Mass. .................................. 45, 141 United Cooperatives, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana ............................ 91, 141, 155 Van Dyke, CO............................................................ 109, 115 Vasarla, Hugo ................................................................. 101 W Wage Earner Health Association, St. Louis, Mo. ............................... 137, 153 Wallace, Henry A. ........................................... 26, 49, 81, 97. 113, 136 Walker, John Brisben ........................................................... 41 Warbasse, James Peter ........................................... 70, 95, 113, 147. 192 Ward, Gordon H. .............................................................. 34 Warne, Colston E. ............................................................. 181 Washington, D. C, Cooperation in ............................... 11. 79, 109, 175, 188 Watkins, W. P. ................................................................ 20 Wealth, How Can We Redistribute .............................................. 44 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...................................................... 147 Webber, Charles C. ............................................................ 192 Western Pennsylvania Council of Consumer Cooperatives ............................ 79 Wholesaling . .......................... 92 Winemiller, William G. .......................................................... 183 Women's Guild, Northern States Cooperative ....................................... 126 Workmen's Mutual Fire Insurance Society, New York City .......................... 78 Yardsticks Camps".'.'.'.'.' • Courses . ' in Cooperation 99' 108 127 89 CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT PEACE • PLENTY • DEMOCRACY Volume XXIII. No. 1 JANUARY 1937 Ten Cents EDITORIALS "Every cooperative is a sign post to ward economic democracy.".—Fowler. • Cooperation is the democratic method of turning the nation's total income into mass purchasing power. • Other wholesales might well copy the sign "Welcome! Builders of a Better World," which greeted the delegates to the annual meeting of Central Coopera tive Wholesale, Superior, Wisconsin. • We echo the sentiment expressed by Mr. Neil S. Beaton, Chairman of the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society before the quarterly meeting of Septem ber 12, "Time passes, and we become impatient with our progress. We realize that much of the unhappiness of the peo ple and the wars of nations are inherent in our present social system. Only by the substitution of Cooperation for Capital ism can the world be saved." • W. K. Gabler, Consultant Manage- ment Engineer, says in the December, 1936, issue of The Cooperative Mer chandiser, the official publication of the National Retailer-Owned Groceries, that the fact that so much is being published about Consumers' Cooperation is cer tainly not because the newspapers are in favor of cooperation and want to help the movement but only because "there is a definite public demand for in formation on the cooperatives." He con cludes by saying that if a cooperative system applies the following five prin ciples successfully, its chances for success are very great. The principles he enu merates are: 1. Large scale operation. 2. Successful policies and methods. 3. Maintenance of the democratic principle. 4. Efficient management. 5. Competitive prices. • This is a simple way of describing a Consumers' Cooperative, which was the opening paragraph in an article "What is a Cooperative" by Richard Giles in Printers Ink: "Stated simply, a consumers' cooperative is three fellows living together. At the beginning of the week they decide that Joe Doakes, the most practical of the three, should do the pur chasing for the week, and they kick in five dollars a piece. Doakes takes the fifteen, buys provender to last a week and has three dol lars left. He returns the three, one to each, and that is that." An organ to spread the knowledge of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary association, purchase and produce for their own use the things they need. Published monthly by The Cooperative League of the U. S. A., 167 West 12th Street, New York City. E- R. Eowen, Editor. Wallace J. Campbell, Associate Editor. Contributing Editors: Editors of Cooperative s and Educational Directors of Cooperative Wholesales and District Leagues. as Second Class Matter, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March S, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Bl"erer- Mvstrom which he describes as growing 1 wly without undermining the profit tern However, he fears that there is *ys, ganger that the cooperative move- rC t may f°H°w °ther channels. The °e er jjes in three directions; first, that •fniiqht have an evangelical spirit; sec- ' A that it might endeavor to produce a °nw' (.ype of economic society; third, that the political administration might assist its development. The following are some typical illus trations from recent literature orders showing the different methods by which cooperative literature is being distributed: An Assistant Professor of Economics of one of the large universities says, "I find an increasing interest in economics students relative to Consumers' Coopera tion." An order for 100 copies of the folder "Learn All About Consumers' Coopera,- tion" stated that "I wish to send out a letter of inquiry to a prospective list and to enclose this circular as additional in formation," Another letter from the Director of De bate of a state university says, "The Uni versity debating association is sponsor ing a number of discussions on Con sumers' Cooperation." A Canadian University professor who orders literature, says, "We have recent ly organized an adult education associa tion here. At present we are mainly con cerned with Consumers' Cooperation." Economics classes in colleges, adult education discussion groups, debating associations, mailing lists — these and many other ways are practical methods of distributing cooperative literature. The Digest of the Cooperative Press published by the International Coopera tive Alliance under date of November 3, '936, is a special issue discussing coop erative education, particularly study circles. More and more it is becoming evident 'hat while Denmark is noted for having developed resident Folk Schools which raw out of a community a few persons T 9ive them a new type of education *, -j enlivens as well as enlightens, that is likely to eventually become equally as well known as the originator of the Study-Circle plan of education which reaches out from some central or ganization into every community and or ganizes the people as a whole into an adult education program. After long years, of experimentation with the Study-Circle method in the temperance and other fields, the cooperative movement of Sweden finally adopted the plan in a definite way about 1930. Now it is spreading to other European countries.- After two years of experimentation the Swiss Cooperative Union has added a Study-Circle section to their organization to promote ,and assist retail cooperative societies to organize their members into- Study-Circles. The publication of the Danish Cooperative Union points out the value of Study-Circles to interest and train young people as well as adults. The Belgian Cooperative Union has prepared a course of six lessons on Cooperation for Study-Circles. The Study-Circle program originated by Sweden and developed on the North American continent by St^ Francis Xavier University of Nova Sco tia, has proven to be the simplest, most economical and most efficient method of educating prospective and present mem bers. This method should be developed widely by cooperatives in America. The Cooperative League has just re ceived a second appeal from the Inter national Cooperative Alliance for funds for food and clothing for cooperators in Spain. The I. C. A. has already sent $20,000 worth of supplies but feels the extreme need calls for added assistance. The statement by Henry J. May, secre tary of the I. C. A., is as follows: "Contributions are to be used in the relief of our fellow cooperators in Spain, who are suffering want of food and other necessaries of life as the result of the terrible civil conflict which has now been waging for full five months. Apart alto gether from the distressful circumstances in which thousands of cooperators are existing at the present time, there is also to be considered the need for clothing in the present winter season, a need which; will be accentuated as the weeks ad vance." Contributions should be addressed to The Cooperative League. Consumers' Cooperation Januaryf COOPERATIVE EDUCATION From Third Hodgson Pratt Memorial Lecture Harold (Editor's Note: This educational challenge to the Cooperative Movement of Great Britain by a friendly critic of high standing as a writer and teacher, both there and in this country, is also de serving of serious consideration by American co operatives. Mr. Laski's complete Lecture "The Spirit of Cooperation" is available in pamphlet form, 15c per copy.) THE Cooperative Movement is not merely storekeeping with the divi dend as the bait to the consumer; it is al so, as I have been arguing, a philosophy of life with obligations that arise from its acceptance. I want to say something, however inadequate, upon the educa tional aspect of that obligation. You will forgive one who is inescapably wedded to his vocation as a teacher if he empha sises that aspect of your work which is nearest to his own. I begin by the recognition of how much you have accomplished. The work of the Cooperative Union and the Women's Guilds needs no eulogy from me; it has become an integral part of your life as a movement. I recognize gladly, too, the aid many societies in your movement have given to bodies like the National Council of Labor Colleges, and the Workers' Educational Association. The more ample the scale on which such aid is afforded, the more profound will be the appreciation of the cooperative spirit. Cooperative Literature Lacks Challenge But is it not true to say that, taken as a whole, there has been a certain want of imagination in your effort at education and propaganda? Is it not a by-product of the Movement, a side-road, rather than the central highway? Are there classics of cooperative literature in the same way that there are classics of so cialist literature to which we all turn for inspiration and instruction? Does the standard of your periodicals compare favorably with the best that capitalism produces? Is the level of instruction at the Cooperative College, the quality of its research, even approximate to that of the universities? Has there not been a tend ency to satisfaction with the mere crea tion of organs of opinion and education instead of an eager devotion to the con tinuous improvement of the levels which they work? I speak as a careful student of y0u effort in these fields. Frankly, it is n ! adequate to the opportunities at your dis posai. Cooperative literature, whether it is the book or the pamphlet or the iour nal, may stabilise the convictions of th converted; it does not make that universal appeal which is essential. It is, if I mav venture the remark, invariably parochial in tone. It lacks the note of fundamental challenge. It does not persuade the m,. known that they may throw off their chains, that there is a world to win. Often, no doubt, it is technically com petent, careful, accurate, knowledgeable. But it lacks that power to strike, as a great American put it, at the jugular, which compels the attention of the Philis tine. This defect is the more arresting in an epoch where the nation awaits a lead. How much close thinking are you doing, in this field, to provide the lead that is required? You have an opportunity such as has hardly come to you in the whole of your history. Traditional values are in the melting-pot; habitual principles are at a discount. A great periodical, an im portant economic treatise, a pamphlet as vital as, say, were Blatchford's "Merrie England" or the "Fabian Essays," forty and fifty years ago, would have a new and eager audience all over the world. What are you doing to produce these things? Can you remain content, in an epoch so critical as ours, to stand by the ancient ways? Have you not the duty to restate, with all the power you can com mand, both the first principles of your Movement, and their practical applica tion in divers realms of immediate sig nificance? A movement whose first prin ciples are as seminal as yours ought to have created a great literature to express them. That literature is wanting. When are you going to make the organized ana organic effort to produce it? So, also, with the educational field- » is not enough to give spasmodic an sporadic aid. The claims of education ar like the claims of love; you have nond afresh to them every day. If it is rjj Cooperative College, I want to see it staffed and so supported, that its S°achers and its research are as pivotal in he discussion of social problems as Kevnes and Pigou in this generation at Cambridge, as Marshall and Sidgwick . the last. I want the students of your to be making contributions to co- oe perative philosophy and technique which re in the central stream of social thought, so that the student of these things turns to them as naturally as to the work of Mr. and Mrs. Webb, of Professor Taw- ney or Mr. Col'e. I do not think the authorities of your Movement have even begun to think in these terms. And I do not believe that Cooperation, as an ideal, will take the place to which it is entitled in the national economy until they do". Cooperative Education Insufficiently Financed It is the same with educational classes. Broadly speaking, this aspect of the Movement has been peripheral, and not central, to its energies. Its leaders have not awakened to the perception that the larger investment they make in an in formed membership, the greater is the strength of the Movement, it would have paid them over and over again to finance the Labour Colleges and the W.E.A. on such a scale that neither had to go cap in hand to other bodies picking up a few odd guineas where they could. The real tragedy of the working class is the trage dy that they are not conscious of their power. The highroad to that conscious ness, as any citizen of Soviet Russia would tell them, lies in the possession of the keys of knowledge. And those keys can be bought and sold for the simple reason that the goodness or badness of an educational system is almost wholly dependent on the amount of money spent upon it. In Great Britain, Capitalism does its best to economise upon expenditure which might awaken the working class to a true realization of its position and its Possibilities. You cannot blame it for this, since it is an obvious insurance against 'he risk of being found out. But the power 01 a great movement such as yours to rePair, at least in part, some of the défi ciences which Capitalism perpetuates from generation to generation is enor- Consumers' Cooperation January, 1937 m°us; and I do not think it can be said Janu truthfully that your Movement has risen to its opportunities. Every Retail Cooperative Should Sell Literature I take one small example. With your millions of members, why are the coop erative stores not, in their formidable volume, the greatest agency in this coun try for the sale of books? They are not less important than soap or chocolate or tobacco; yet we can count almost on the fingers of both hands the stores in which the sale of books is a normal feature of daily business. "Give me the making of a nation's ballads," said Fletcher of Sal- toun, "and I care not who makes their laws." Give me the chance to sell the literature which, from Owen and Saint Simon, through Marx and William Mor ris, to Shaw and Well's and Webb, has exposed the hollow sham of capitalist pretensions, and I think I can safely pre dict that within a decade the conse quences would be profound. Your roundsmen ought to be selling books and pamphlets to his customers as naturally as he sells bread and milk. It is the sign of a defective imagination that the Move ment has not availed itself of this oppor tunity. Do not, I beg of you, think me un friendly or critical to excess in what 1 have ventured to say. You are entitled to candour; you did not invite me here merely that I should repeat the stereo typed eulogies it would be so easy to make. I say what I have said on this theme because in attention to its implica tions there lies a good deal of the future of the Cooperative Movement. All efforts such as yours go through times when they need to be taken up on to an emi nence and compelled to meditate not upon the daily urgencies, but upon the long-term possibilities which give reality its hope and its promise. And the proper time for such reflection is a period of grave social crisis like our own. Such periods always bring first principles into the foreground; and it is only by reflec tion upon their meaning that we can go forward. You must often have been troubled, as I have been troubled, by the vast number of those in the army of cooperators to whom the Movement is little more than a system of shops which pay a dividend ton purchases. They are the men and •women with whom you have failed. And you have failed with them because neither your educational nor your literary effort made them aware of links between you and them far more substantial than the cash-nexus which is your present 'bond. It is for their conquest that you, as I, are concerned. Your power to bind them to you with a moral loyalty that is unbreakable is what Edmund Burke called the "commodity of choice" of which you have the monopoly. Fail here, and your Movement will pass into that phase of stagnation which attends all great movements which do not make an imaginative use of their opportunities. "Your chance of creative adventure is supreme. Have the energy and the age to seize it in the spirit of pioneers. For, by doing so, you will do &„ thing more than extend the boundaries f Cooperation. You will make its spirit dominating part of our ethos as a nati & You will infuse every aspect of the Lab"1 Movement with the quality of your d * termination. You will give it a strength and a new purposive enerqv The foes it confronts today are powerful enough to require from you the whole authority of your ideal if they are to be defeated. You cannot rest on your past achievement. You are the trustees of your pioneers' dream. You have to pass jn undimmed the torch of its conscious life CLOQUET'S CORNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH Erick Kendall Associate Editor, "The Cooperative Builder" 'u"tJELLO. This is the manager of the •*-•*• Cloquet Co-op speaking. Put a little item in the Builder that we've bought out the Kuitu-Mattinen store building and will move our branch No. 1 there short- V Thus, casually, the Cloquet manager informed us of an important development. Just a matter-of-fact happening as far as the executives at Cloquet were concerned, but in reality typical of the way in which this "business-with-a-heart" movement is building a new world. Kuitu-Mattinen was a private store— a competitor of the co-op that, together with other profit concerns had done its best to do away with this cooperative that was revolutionizing the distributive game by keeping money in circulation instead of piling it up into the hands of the few. These profit-motivated businesses had the field wide open in the early days of Cloquet, the same as they still have in thousands of "Cloquets" throughout the land. They just took, and took, and took some more from the mill hands of this little northern Minnesota lumbering cen ter and from the "stump farmers" that had settled the surrounding countryside, divested of its wealth in forest produce by still larger "takers," who are still basking on their ill-gotten gains on the sands of Palm Beaches and Rivieras. But a considerable portion of Cloquet's 7,000 population consisted of a quiet and steady-going people known as Finns. They were men who already in their arc tic homeland had banded together to do something about this breeder of depres sions and misery—this thing profit. These men and women refused to merely go on an emotional joy-ride by listening to soap-box orators spout about the Utopia to come. They knew that the system was all wrong, but they also knew that talk was cheap. In the early years of the present cen tury these Cloquet Finns took their first whack at the profit system. They estab lished a workers* stock company. This, however, was not quite a true coopera tive, and in 1909 it went into bankruptcy. They Started Again But the Cloquet Finns didn't fold their hands and say "uncle." The hinges on the closed doors of the stock company scarcely had time to rust before the co operative idea was again crystalizing. In January, 1910, a collection netting $35 was taken at an entertainment sponsored by the local Finnish Workers Club for the purpose of starting a cooperative store. Though some were skeptical be cause of losses suffered in the stock com pany, the pioneers kept at the idea witn Consumers' Cooperation 'cal Finnish perseverance, and in the •nq the cooperative store opened for ifsiness with 121 members and a capital of $1,622. Due to lack of cooperative laws the so- • ty was incorporated under the name, "Cloquet Stock and Mercantile Co." However, it was a true cooperative and trictly adhered to the Rochdale prin ciples. In 1921 it was reincorporated un der the cooperative law and the name changed to "Cloquet Cooperative So ciety," and under this name the organiza tion has gone a long way towards estab lishing in northwestern Minnesota a small corner of the Cooperative Common wealth. Going Was Hard at First The going was far from smooth for the Cloquet pioneers. First, there was the dis trust of the consumers due to earlier fail ures. Then a lack of funds caused by credit trading. At one time, prior to the establishment of the Central Cooperative Wholesale, private wholesales threatened to close the co-op's doors unless at least $1.000 was forthcoming on accounts within the next 24 hours. An emergency meeting of the members was called and the situation explained. Did these members lose faith in their co-op? No. Instead, they went to the bu reau drawers, dug out their bank books, and toted their life savings to the harass ed manager. The co-op got more money than it needed, and at reasonable rates of interest. The old mutual distrust between the workers and farmers was another stum bling block during the early days. Dis trusting their fellow consumers from the town's paper mills, ____________ the Finnish farmers in the surrounding territory set up their own cooperative store on an island in the St. Louis River, almost within shout ing distance of the Qoquet Cooperative Society. This co-op, «lied the "Knife «Us Co-op Ass'n." through the difficulties as lts urban brother, January, 1937 making the same mistakes and suffering from the same diseases of non-cooperator managers, etc. Fire Takes All As if to add the overflow-drop to the local cooperators' cup of troubles, a disas trous fire swept the entire section of Min nesota in 1918. The town of Cloquet was swept slick and clean, cooperators losing their all, including the store they had built. The farmer-owned store on the island didn't burn, but it suffered almost equally through the destroyed buying power of the membership. There is an old humorous poem about a farmer who knew how to take strokes of hard luck. After losing his livestock, a cyclone took his house, an earthquake swallowed the ground where it used to stand and a tax collector taxed him for the hole in the ground. The poem con cludes: Did he mourn and sigh, did he weep and cry? And cuss the hurricanes sweeping by? Not him! He climbed to the top of the hill Where standing room was left him still, And burying his head, here's what he said: "I guess it's time to get up and get. But Lord, I ain't had the measles yet." They Didn't "Get" v That's just the kind of men and women the Cloquet cooperators were. But instead of "getting up to get" they proceeded to fill "the hole in the ground." And shortly the co-op store was bigger and better than ever. The misfortune served to weld them closer together and to rally around their joint enterprise with renewed ener gy. A historical sketch of the co-op, pub lished ten years ago, describes this period as follows: "About the time of the great fire the 1 '. - . é * >-.>» One of Cloquet's Corners of the Commonwealth paid-in share capital was $2,885 and the net worth $6,081. When the books were balanced the first time after the fire, the value of the capital stock of the company was only $491.46 and its own resources had all been wiped out. "In spite of the fact that the financial situation looked almost hopeless, the board of directors met soon after the fire, and began to plan the reconstruction of the store. A temporary structure was erected on the lot owned by the com pany." Business Picks Up "When the store was opened again after the fire in this temporary structure, business rapidly picked up. It seems that through the common misfortune people had been brought closer to each other and appeared to realize the value of co operation more than ever before. Then, what made the cooperative store partic ularly popular was its policy to sell goods to the stricken consumers, many of whom had lost heavily through the fire, at very reasonable prices." It wasn't long before the farmers, too, began to realize that as consumers their interests were identical with those of the urban consumers. In 1923 the farmers' co-op on Dunlop island was consolidated with the other store, becoming its branch. That action marked the reaching of the hilltop for the Cloquet store co-op. From then on, its history has been just one victory after another. It could possibly be best sketched in brief headlines something like the following: 1923 CLOQUET CO-OP SOCIETY AMALGA MATES WITH FARMERS' STORE Volume for Year $265,757; Non-Finns Becoming Members. 1924 CLOQUET CO-OP'S VOLUME $366,064 Pays Over $10,000 in Trade Rebates 1927 CO-OP OPENS STORE NO. 3 AT ESKOS CORNER Reports 2,277 Members; Sales Over $516,000 1932 CLOQUET SETS UP STORE NO. 4 AT MAHTOWA Has Volume of $468,780 1935 CO-OP BUILDS GAS STATION 6 GARAGE Sales Nearly $900,000 for a year 1936 FORMER COMPETITOR'S MODERN STORE BOUGHT BY CO-OP First American Cooperative store to pass $1,000,000 mark 8 Starting out with its one little gro rnPRFCT COOPERATIVE TERMINOLOGY shop a quarter century ago, the Cloq CUKK"-**-1 V-WV-M i_rvr-n i Y i_ i i_i\iv\ii ^v^t-v^vx i on Cooperative has added one departs 6' after another till it now handles pra t cally everything that a human be' '" needs in his lifetime, from nipples throu ? automobiles to necesssities for the la ride. It has four grocery and meat shon and departments for the handling of co | dry goods, furniture, feed, buildinq m ' terial, petroleum products, automobil " and insurance. It buys beef cattle fro * its farmer members and butchers for th use of the urban consumers—the bénir ning for the complete cooperative circl of production and distribution, A firm believer in centralization, the Cloquet Co-op has been one of fa founders, and is an ardent supporter of the Central Cooperative Wholesale, the Trico Cooperative Oil Association and the Northern States Cooperative League (through which it is affiliated with The Cooperative League of the U.S.A.) The co-op's directors assisted the organiza tion of a Cooperative Burial Association for Carlton, Aitkin, Pine and St. Louis Counties. Having taken the profits out of the business of living, the Cloquet cooper- ators want to die sans profit as well. Does Education Work Aside from being a dues-paying mem ber in cooperative educational organiza tions, the Cloquet co-op does a good deal of educational work on its own score. In connection with the main store on Avenue F. and 14th Street it has an auditorium, fully equipped for the staging of plays and entertainments of all types. It circu lates cooperative publications among the membership, arranges cooperative insti tutes, organizes essay contests, etc. The Cloquet cooperators are not mere ly selling beans over a counter. They are building up their corner of the Coopera tive Commonwealth—and they know it. as the following quotation from Article 1 of the society's by-laws will show: "The cooperative society is not a com petitive business which endeavors to ac cumulate money by selling commodities for profit, but its object is to aid in bring ing about a complete change in the pres ent system of production and distribution, and in developing a new and just system serving the interests of the community- are four basic kinds of eco- | nofflic activities to which the word ••Cooperation" is commonly applied. They are Production, Marketing, Pur- basing and Finance. Because of the wide 'ariation in the use of cooperative termi- V loqy there is need for clarification and standardization. Cooperatives begin basically as or- qanizations of individuals. Producers Co operation is the pooling of the labor of the individual members. Cooperative Marketing is the pooling of the products of the individual members. Cooperative Purchasing is the pooling of the pur chasing power of the individual members. Cooperative Finance is the pooling of the funds of the individual members. 1. Producers Cooperatives Producers Cooperatives are organiza tions of individuals who pool their labor to produce together. They may consist of agricultural, in dustrial or professional workers. Agricul tural Producers Cooperatives are groupe of individuals who pool their labor to farm together; Industrial Producers Co operatives are groups of individuals who pool their labor to manufacture together; Professional Producers Cooperatives are groups of individuals who pool their labor to render service together. Only a few real Producers Coopera tives, made up of persons who pool their labor for production are in existence. Their record of failure has been most serious over the last hundred years. The term Producers Cooperatives is sometimes applied to Marketing Coop eratives, which is plainly an incorrect designation. A Producers Cooperative is correctly only a cooperative organization of individuals who pool their labor to produce together. Marketing Coopera tives, discussed in the next paragraph, are almost entirely made up of individuals wno produce separately and pool their Products for market, but not their labor tor production. 2. Marketing Cooperatives Marketing Cooperatives are organiza tions of individuals who commonly pro duce separately with their own labor and capital and pool their products and mar ket them together. Marketing Coopera tives are sometimes called Farmer Co operatives as they are generally made up of farmers. In some cases, such as fruit, eggs and cotton marketing cooperatives, the prod ucts handled are graded for the market; in other cases, such as milk, marketing cooperatives process a part of the prod uct they handle into butter and cheese in order to market it more readily. They also often purchase cooperatively the supplies . they use in processing and packaging the finished products. 3. Purchasing Cooperatives Purchasing Cooperatives are organiza tions of individuals who pool their pur chasing power to buy any and all forms of supplies and services together. Charles Gide of France, who is ac cepted as among the truest of cooperative philosophers, says, "In a broad sense a consumers' cooperative society exists every time that a number of persons feel ing the same need, join together col lectively to satisfy it better than they could do by individual means." Some forms of supplies are commonly designated, for statistical purposes, as producers goods and others as consumers goods. Whether the goods that are pur chased together cooperatively are classi fied as producers or consumers goods does not change the correct cooperative classification of the transaction. In either case it is Cooperative Purchasing. Fur thermore since all supplies or services are purchased by consumers for immediate or longer time consumption, the name Consumers' Cooperation is correctly used synonymously with the words Co operative Purchasing. When individuals purchase together they are acting as consumers, rather than Consumers' Cooperation January, 1937 as producers, no matter whether what they purchase is for immediate consump tion such as food or gasoline, or for con sumption over a longer period of time such as clothing or fertilizer. For further clarification, take this il lustration. Individuals organize coopera tives to purchase canned goods to eat. Plainly they are acting as consumers. Eventually as consumers they build a canning factory and buy equipment for canning. Such equipment is commonly classified statistically as producers goods. But the purchase of canning equipment, •even though statistically described as producers goods, does not make the transaction Producers Cooperation. Whether the canned goods or the canning equipment is purchased it is all Coop erative Purchasing or Consumers' Coop eration. Suppose, further, that individual farm producers join together into a Purchasing Cooperative to buy together. They may buy fertilizer for their farms, gasoline for their tractors, clothes for their bodies or food for their stomachs. The fertilizer is spread on the ground, the gasoline is put into the tank of the tractor, the farmer dresses himself in his clothes, and eats the food. When he goes out and gets on the tractor to start plowing he is not act ing as a member of a Producers Coop erative, as he is producing individually. He has not acted as a member of a Mar keting Cooperative as all he has done has been to purchase cooperatively. Whether fertilizer for the ground, or gasoline for the tractor, or clothes for his body, or food for his stomach, he has only acted as a purchaser or consumer, no matter how the goods he has purchased may be classified for statistical purposes, whether as producers or consumers goods. The purchase of producers goods, so called, does not make the transaction Producers or Marketing Cooperation. Cooperative Purchasing or Consumers' Cooperation includes all pooling of purchasing power for the cooperative buying of all forms of supplies and services. Cooperative Production may be under taken by either Marketing or Purchasing Cooperatives as has been indicated from the discussion. Marketing Cooperatives may process their products as a part of their marketing functions. Purchasing Cooperatives likewise may reach back 10 they have pooled together amount of purchasing power, build'601 buy a factory and begin producing t)°r either type of cooperative production "' usually not done as a separate organ; ^ tion but only as a division of the pare3" marketing or purchasing coopératif The phrase Producers Cooperation •' sometimes used interchangeably with G? operative Production which is manifest] incorrect when applied to such process ing or manufacturing of products b" Marketing or Purchasing Cooperatives 4. Finance Cooperatives The largest number of Cooperative Fi nance Organizations are called by the name of Credit Unions. There are other types as well, principally in the farm field, known by such names as Credit Banks, etc. Cooperative Insurance is sometimes known as Secondary Finance. National Organizations Most naturally in the development of Cooperatives there comes a time when it is found to be practicable to set up Na tional Organizations for education and business in each of the four Cooperative fields. Some regional cooperative organi zations are members of more than one of the national groups. No national Producers Cooperative or ganizations, either educational or busi ness, exist in the United States. Cooperative Marketing organizations have set up the National Cooperative Council, Washington, D. C., as their educational agency. Their national busi ness functions are carried on as separate national commodity groups rather than as one national organization. Cooperative Purchasing organizations have set up The Cooperative League. New York City, as their educational agency. A number of regional Coopera tive Purchasing organizations have set up National Cooperatives, Inc., Chicago, 111., as their national business agency. Cooperative Finance organizations have set up the Credit Union National Association, Madison, Wis., as their edu cational agency. Consumers' Cooperation CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVES IN Superior, Wisconsin—Central Coop- tive Wholesale added a cool half mil- fr^ dollars to its 1935 sales record to ach a new grand total of $2,830,302 for Ï936. The new record exceeds the year's otâ by $80,000 and showed an increase T 29 50 Per cent over 'ast year's sales of $2,185,244. Seattle, Washington —• Early returns indicated that business for 1936 would exceed by at least ten per cent the $1,- 425,000 wholesale volume of Grange Co operative Wholesale in 1935. Growing business in eastern Washington made it necessary to construct additional ware house and office space in Spokane ' to handle the influx of cooperative trade. Columbus, Ohio — Cooperatives affil iated with the Ohio Farm Bureau Fed eration completed their most successful year to date according to a summary pre pared by L. A. Taylor. assistant secre tary of the Ohio Farm Bureau. Member ship increased 12 per cent; cooperative business totaled $7,000,000; auto insur ance policies in force 180,000; life insur ance business $16,500,000; fire insurance business $50,000,000; power was supplied to 1500 homes and contracts totaling $2,000,000 were let for electric lines to serve 7,000 farms; combined assets mounted to $8,500,000 and subscribers to the Farm Bureau News jumped to 72,000. Minneapolis — Minnesota co-ops in creased their total business in gasoline more than 8,000,000 gallons in 1935 to establish themselves firmly as .second largest distributors of gasoline in the state. With a total volume which has grown from 17,000,000 gallons in 1929 to more than 38,000,000 in 1935, the co ops are now second only to Standard of Indiana. Co-op business grew from 4.88 per cent of the state total in 1929 to 8.51 per cent in 1935, while the volume of Standard Oil's business fell from 26.38 to 17-92 per cent. Washington, D. C.—Farm supply co operatives became an increasingly im portant factor in rural economy in the twelve months ending June 31 by in creasing business $59,000,000, making a total volume of $309,000,000. In the ten January, 1937 years from 1925 to 1935, farm supply co operatives increased from 3 to 12 per cent of the nation's total farm supply business. Two Harbors, Minn.—The Minnesota Power and Light Company has apparent ly abandoned a vain attempt to scare out the Lake County Cooperative Power As sociation. The private company sent 7 trucks and 50 men into the territory of the co-op and started building parallel lines. After energizing its lines to serve a handful of farmers, the private-profit company withdrew. St. Paul—The Farmers Union Central Exchange voted at its annual meeting here December 12 to extend the privileges of membership to its first city coopera tive. The action follows a tradition sef by other cooperative wholesales which have in the last few years opened mem bership to urban as well as rural organi zations. Cloquet, Minnesota—The Cloquet Co operative Society became the first local retail cooperative to boost its annual busi ness past the million dollar mark. The first 11 months of 1936 showed an in crease of $221,000 over its volume in the same period the preceding year. Sales to the end of November were $1,015,000. Share capital interest and patronage divi dends to members totaled more than $40,000. Indianapolis — Credit Unions organ ized by cooperatives affiliated with the Farm Bureau Cooperative Association have accumulated assets of more than $200,000. Loans of more than $400,000 have been made since the credit union program of organization was launched in 1931. Minneapolis — Eighty students from four states completed the course of study at the Institute for Cooperative Manage ment held at the Center for Continuation Study on the Campus of the University of Minnesota November 16 to December 12. This was the first time any state uni versity had participated in sponsoring such a school or in furnishing members 11 of its faculty. Professors from the Uni versity of Minnesota and members of the staff of Midland Cooperative Wholesale made up the faculty of the institute. Manhattan, Kansas —• Kansas State College opened a short course for coop erative managers here November 30. The course will run through January 30, and will include technical training on the problems of cooperative management as well as lectures on the nature of the eco nomic system and the history and prin ciples of consumer cooperation. Jamestown, North Dakota — The Farmers Union Cooperative Education Service, the Northern States Cooperative League and the State Farmers Unions of Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin are conducting a series of cooperative institutes in January, February and March. The North Dakota Institute at Williston will run from January 4 through January 23. The Montana and Wisconsin Institutes will run from Feb ruary 1 to 20 and from February 22 to March 15, respectively. Indianapolis — The Education depart ment of Indiana Farm Bureau Coopera tive Association reports that 569 young people in the state went to cooperative camps or institutes during the year. Most of these were one week summer institutes. North Kansas City, Mo.—Merlin G. Miller, for six years professor of history and sociology at the College of Emooria, Emporia, Kansas, has resigned to become a member of the education department of Consumers Cooperative Association. Professor Miller was director of the Co operative Leadership Summer School at the American Peoples School, New York City, last year and was for some time president of the Emporia Consumers Co operative Association. Tampa, Florida—The American Fed eration of Labor at its annual conference November 16-24 endorsed the organiza tion of workers as consumers in con sumer cooperatives and urged a "close alliance" between organized labor and the consumers cooperative movement. E. R. Bowen, General Secretary of The Cooperative League, addressed the con vention urging that labor organize its purchasing power as well as its producing power as "twin remedies" for the solu tion of the problems of labor. A special 12 meeting was called by the Workers Ed cation Bureau and The Coopérât; League to discuss further steps in coorf erative organization. This was the fir~ time in the history of the A. F. of L. that a representative of organized consumer was invited to address its national con clave. Harrisburg, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperative Association organized two years ago, had a qro«• office supplies, etc., to individual and dub members by mail. Superior, Wisconsin — Central Coop- dative Wholesales' branch warehouse at lrginia, Minnesota, which was opened lam uary, 1937 late in September to serve local coopera tive associations in the Mesabe Range territory of Northern Minnesota, did a $30,000 business during its first three months of operation. • COOPERATIVE MEDICINE A Bureau of Cooperative Medicine has been established by The Coop erative League. The League has been carrying on work in the interest of group organization for health protection since 1916. Its President, Dr. Warbasse, had already been working in this field, and had published many articles on the sub ject. His pamphlet on "The Socializa tion of Medicine" was published by the Journal of the American Medical Asso ciation, July 18, 1914. A chief function of The League has been to show people how to unite cooperatively to supply themselves with commodities and serv ices; and among the most important of these is medical service. The League has been promoting this medical work for twenty years just as it has been promoting the organization of stores, oil stations, etc., without a special department for each. Recently the in terest in cooperative health protection has become so great that this Bureau has been created. This has seemed called for because of the highly specialized nature of medical service. The Bureau of Cooperative Medi cine is prepared to give instruction and advice on the organization of groups of people who wish to employ medical serv ice. Already such groups in many parts of the country are in operation and in process of organization. Groups that are in operation can help by sending to The League information on their work. We wish to know the name and location of every cooperative health society in the country. They will serve the cause by making themselves known to The Cooperative League. Literature on cooperative medicine will be sent to groups thus making themselves known. The Executive Board of the Bureau of Cooperative Medicine of The League consists of Dr. J. P. Warbasse, Chairman; Dr. Fred D. Mott, Vice-Chairman; Dr. King.sley Roberts, Medical Director; Mr. S. W. Friedland, Secretary; Mr. Boris Orlov, Treasurer. 13 BOOK REVIEWS THE WAY OUT OF CHAOS Brotherhood Economics, by Toyohiko Kagawa, Rauschenbush Lectures on "Christian Brother hood and Economic Reconstruction," Harper and Bros., New York ................ $1.50 (Order through The Cooperative League) To say that we are in chaos at present is only to mouth the commonplace. We are seeking a way out of this chaos in America. We do not want to go back, but forward. What is to be the new American economic and political order? Kagawa has boldly and succintly suggested the cooperative way. The cooperatives are a brotherhood movement. Charles Clayton Morrison, editor of The Christian Century, stirred and challenged us when he pointed out the "responsibility of the Church for the character of civilization." Kagawa shows us that the cooperative method is the way by which the Church can actually realize this responsibility. "If Christians of various denominations would unite among themselves on the principles of the New Testament which are common to all in spite of some differences of interpretation, and if they would agree to practice the co operative movement based upon brotherhood love, they would be able to prevent unem ployment, panic and exploitation." Again, Kagawa definitely suggests the cooper ative state. He feels that nothing short of this will suffice to accomplish the end desired, both politi cally and economically. The cooperative nation is the only way out of our dilemma. I am not enough of an economist or a statesman to comment criti cally upon this section of the book. The very fact, however, that it is written and published in very definite and practical terms, is a most stimulating statement, and we hope, is of far-reaching signifi cance. It is something to be thought through care fully, and also a target to shoot at. There will be many "shooters," but we anticipate, many thinkers also. Finally, Kagawa presents the way to world peace through cooperatives. War can be stopped only as the problems of our national economic differences and advantages are solved through co operation and world brotherhood. Thus, Kagawa envisions world-wide cooperation—all of this based on the Christian principles of love and brotherhood. The simple and straight-forward language, and the breadth and vision of the think ing is the marvel of this chapter. The following significant statement closes the lectures: "If we leave economic activities as they are today, the peace of the world will never be established. Neither will religion in its present state ever realize world peace. Peace will come only when the consciousness of redemp tive love as manifested on the Cross per meates the life of international economy through brotherhood love evidenced in the cooperative movement. So with the same courageous spirit that drove millions of men to dedicate their lives to the Crusades and to the reclamation of the Holy Land, let us with- 14 out delay endeavor to 'cooperatize' the nomic system of the world. With thi ^ complished, we shall find that we have V'0" •the only sure foundation for the establish™ of world peace." ent The book is a challenge. It is a fitting wort climax the widely influential tour of America '° completed by Dr. Kagawa. We thank him J^ profoundly for his life-blood expended here in °St nation, and now for this potentially strategic booT J. Henry Carpem», Executive Secretary, National KaqavT Coordinating Advisory ComrnitfJ • NEW CO-OP TEXT Consumers Cooperative Adventures, Harlan J Randall and Clay J. Daggett, Whitewater Press Whitewater, Wisconsin .............. jß (V) (Order through The Cooperative League) "Consumers Cooperative Adventures" written by Professors Randall and Daggett, appeals to me as a most valuable addition to the educational equipment of the cooperative movement. The value of the book is at once apparent to anyone familiar with the problems of the teacher and with the difficulties confronting the student who is at tempting to acquaint himself with a new field ol subject matter. While we have many books on the subject which satisfy the demands of the analytical economists, we have few which meet the demands of the critical scientist and at the same time serve the needs of the teacher and student. The authors of this work, one an economist and the other an educator, have succeeded, it seems to me, in pro ducing a book which serves the requirements of those two groups in a most satisfactory manner. A fair examination of the book will show that the above conclusion is easily justified. The im partial treatment of subject matter; the presenta tion of the faults as well as the virtues of the cooperative system; the sensible distribution ol attention between the various essential aspects oi the movement and the significant details; the simplicity of the language and the boldness of the type; the pleasing illustrative material consisting of about one hundred plates, graphs, and photo graphs; and the thought-provoking, study-compel ling and discussion-stimulating questions at the end of each chapter all combine to make the book an excellent text for school or college use or lor the usual educational work of any cooperative association. Are Co-ops) Adventures? There is but one adverse criticism which I should like to offer; and this, perhaps, may be rather insignificant. It seems to me that the word "adventures" as it is used in the title may fl>ve undue stimulus to an erroneous belief which is al ready prevalent in the American mind; namf'^ the belief that cooperative enterprises established for service are more likely to fail or less likely ' succeed than are competitive enterprises estaD- lished for private profit. The facts, it seems to me, do not justify any such belief. In truth, the evi- Consumers' Cooperation warrants just the opposite conclusion, that de"ce j money honestly invested in cooperative lab01 ises are more likely to return a fair reward ente{?' investor than if the same support be de- 10 i to competitive, profit-motivated businesses v°j 'ndustries. However, as I have said, the I a • -„n may be insignificant for it certainly does criticism not pertain to the contents of the book itself. I wish to take advantage of the opportunity of fered by this review to urge my fellow teachers, fellow students and fellow cooperators to examine this book. J. R. Cotton, Dept. of Economics, Wisconsin State Teachers College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. THE PRESS BOOSTS CONSUMERS' COOPERATION GENERAL MAGAZINES , ..i,..,,. Spectator, December-January, "Co-ops: Tte Latest Ox-Cart to Utopia," Allan Chase. Atlantic Monthly, December, 1936, "The Coopéra- ftri s_An Experiment in Civilization," J. B. Matthews. An answer will appear in the March Call of Youth, November, 1936, "The Co-ops in America," Al Friedman. Consumers Guide, November 30, 1936, "Are Price Tags Enough?" Current Digest, December, 1936, "Co-ops," M. Lowell Gunzburg, reprinted from Mid-Week Pictorial. Daily Californian, October 21, 23, 26, November 2, 1936, Series of four articles on Student Co operatives, Peter Shinoda and Walter Headley. Free America, January, 1937, "Cooperation for Distributists," Bertram B. Fowler. Journal of Electrical Workers and Operators, No vember, 1936, "Growth of Co-ops Drives To ward Clash." Journal of the National Education Association, January, 1937, 16 page section on "The Con sumers Cooperative Movement," Benson Y. Landis. Junior Red Cross Journal, December, 1936, "Con sumer Cooperation in America," Bertram B. Fowler. Literary Digest, November 21, 1936, "Prosperity Forge: Nova Scotia by Cooperative Action Banishes Poverty." New Republic, November 18, 1936, "Consumer Cooperation and Labor," Herbert Fierst. News for Farmer Cooperatives^ November, 1936, "Quality—A Purchasing Co-op's Obligation," Robert Welles Ritchie. Pathfinder, October 17, 1936, "Cooperatives Meet," news item. October 24, 1936, "Cooperative Movement," Editorial. Social Frontier, January, 1937, "We Study Scan dinavia," Goodwin Watson. Student Advocate, October-November, "Campus Cooperatives," William Moore. BUSINESS JOURNALS Advertising Age, November 16, 1936, "Retail Sell- ™fl to Change with Co-ops," report of speech of Percy S. Brown at American Management Ass'n. Tl* Annalist, October 23, 1936, "Rural Electrifi cation, A Conspicuous Aspect of the Coopera tive Movement," Bernhard Ostrolenk. °"aness Week, November 21, 1936, "Cooperative rervor Wanes." ^-«operative Merchandiser, December, 1936, "The Bugaboo of Consumer Cooperatives," W. K. Jam luary, 1937 Dun and Bradstreet Monthly, December, 1936, "Consumer Cooperatives," Willard Thorp. Hardware Retailer, November, 1936, "Don't Wor ry Too Much About Co-ops," "The Mystery of Washington," an editorial. The Index, December, 1936, "Consumer Coopera tives, Their Actual Status in our National Economy." Nation's Business, January, 1937, "Consumer Co operation Moves to Town," Edward Moeller. National Petroleum News», October 28, 1936, Re port of speech of Warren C. Platt at Oil Mar keters Convention. The Plan, "Meeting the Business Problems in a Changing America," E. St. Elmo Lewis. Restaurant Management, October, 1936, "Cafe teria Principles and Practices," R. T. Huntisg- ton. Sales Management, October 20, 1936, "Behind that Co-op Label," Bertram B. Fowler. Tide, December, 1936, "Co-op Front." RELIGIOUS MAGAZINES Catholic Worker, November, 1936, "Cooperation in Racine Showing Labor Way Out." December, 1936, "Cooperative Has 1st Anni versary of Foundation," Eisa F. Schabehar. Catholic Digest, November, 1936, "Let's Cooper ate," Richard Deverall, reprinted from the Christian Front. Central Blatt and Social Justice, December, 1936, "Farmers Cooperative Wholesale Succeeds," "Opposition to Cooperatives." Christian Front, January, 1937, "The Basic Sound ness of Cooperation," Don Virgil Michel, O.S.B. "Cooperation and the Just Price," Richard Deverall. Christian Register, November 19, 1936, "Danish High Schools," a Talk with Mrs. Louis D. Bran- deis, Delos W. O'Brian. Christian Century, December 12, 1936. "The Church and Cooperatives," Ellis Cowling. Epworth Herald, December 5, 1936, "Cooperation is More Than Buying," Arthur Hedley. Landward, Autumn, "The Burning Bush in Nova Scotia," Nora Bateson. Queen's Work, December, 1936, "Campus Co-ops Cut Cost of College Education," William Moore. January, 1937, "From Toad Lane to—? Actual Photographs Tell the Story," G. A. McDonald, S.J. United Presbyterian, August 13, 1936, "An Appli cation of Christian Ethics," Howard Thompson. LABOR PUBLICATIONS Milwaukee Leader, September 15, 1936, "Workers Awaken to Lack of Consumers Cooperative," Irvin L. Aaron. 15 New Leader, December 5, 1936, "Cooperatives Urge Labor Tie-up," E. R. Bowen. Progressive, November 7, 1936, William Green's Speech to Cooperative Congress. December 19, 1936, "A. F. of L. Report on Co operatives." Workers Education News,, November 14, 1936, "Worker Should Get Value for his Wages, Says Green." December 5, 1936, "Evening Meeting on Work ers' Education and Cooperatives." "Racine Workers Build a Cooperative" by Wil liam Lloyd, published in the August issue of Consumers' Cooperation, was reprinted in the following labor publications: Federation News, November 7, 1936. Machinists' Monthlv Journal. November, 1936. Railway Carmen's Journal, November, 1936. Quarry Workers Journal, November, 1936. "Religion and Distribution," an address by Ed- v/arrl A. Filene, was reprinted in the following publications: Boilermakers Journal, Dprem'ber. 1936. Character, December, 1936. Christian Science Monitor. October 22, 1936. Federation News, November 14, 1936. Information Service, October 31, 1936. Machinists' Monthly Journal, December, 1936. Ouarry Workers Journal. November, 1936. Railway Carmen's Journal, December, 1936. Railway Clerk, December, 1936. Southern Labor Review, October 21, 1936. NEWSPAPERS Baltimore Evening Sun, November 10, 1936, "Find Coooerative Problems Clearer." The Dartmouth, October 22, 1936, "The Middle Way," H. Wentworth Eldredge. Des Meines Tribune, July 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, Extracts from "Sweden, the Middle Way," Marquis W. Childs. Other papers can arrange to print "Sweden, the Middle Way." in serial form by making arrangements with Yal? University Press. New York Herald Tribune, December 16. 1936, "Consumer Coooeratives Here to Stay, Sales Executives Told." November 20, 1936, "Are Cooperatives Effi cient," editorial. Minneapolis Journal, November 26, 1936, "Con sumers' Cooperatives," editorial. New York Post, November 2, 1936, "Cooperative Leader Warns Fascism Perils Democracy." November 28, 1936, "Scots Scatter Cash in U.S.—But Only to Cooperatives." New York Times. November 22, 1936, "Hail Co operatives As Nation's Ideal." January 4, 1937, "U. S. Again Eyeing Coopera tive Store." January 4, 1937, "1936 Best Year in Trade for Cooperative Group." New York World Telegram, December 19, 1936, Week-end Magazine Section, "New Yorkers Won't Cooperate," S. H. Walker and Paul Sklar. January 4, 1937, "Consumer Cooperatives Soundly Based, Says Credit Ass'n. Head." 16 REVIEWS American Interne, November, 1936, "Cooper r Medicine," review of "The Doctor an-i , Public." ä "* Christendom, Autumn, review of "Consumer r operation in America," Arthur E. Holt. ° Guild Reporter, January 2, 1936, review of "r operative Medicine." °' New York Times, January 3, 1937, "Denmark ' a Successful Cooperative Commonwealth " * review of "Denmark, the Cooperative V/a " Frederic C. Howe. '• Reviewn of "The Decline and Rise of the Co sumer," Horace M. Kallen, have appeared °' the following publications: Christian Reqister, Ortober 8, 1936, Dale DeWitt Christian Century, October 7, 1936, Llewellvn Jones. lyn New York Times, October 11, 1936, M. Lowell Gunzburg. New Republic, October 21. 1936, Herbert Fierst Opinion, December, 1936, Sidney Hook. Railway Carmen's Journal, November, 1936. Railroad Trainman, November, 1936. Saturday Review of Literature, September 19 1936, Bertram B. Fowler. Survey Graphic, December, 1936, Bertram B. Fowler. S^'-ial Frontier, November, 1936, Edmund deS. Brunner. New York Post, November 3, 1936, Harry Hansen. NEW BOOKS Several important new books on the cooperative movement has been published in the last few months. Since it is impossible to review them in this issue, we are listing below those which may be ordered now through The Cooperative League. The Peoples Year Book, 1937. Published by the Cooperative Wholesale Society, Manchester. England. Latest cooperative statistics on the movement in every country. 350 pages, doth cover $1.00, paper $.65. The Cooperative League Year Book, 1936, Edited by V. S. Alanne and Cecil R. Crews. The latesl available statistics on consumers cooperative associations in the United States. 260 pages, paper cover, $1.00. Denmark—The Cooperative Way, by Frederic C. Howe. A description of the Danish coopera tive movement as an alternative to Communism and Fascism. Coward McCann, 272 pages, J/JU Co-op, Upton Sinclair. A novel of living together. Cast in the realistic setting of a producers, sett- help" cooperative in California. Farrar ana Rinehart, 426 pages, $2.50. Democracy in Denmark, Josephine Goldmark an A. H. Hollman, translated by Alice G. Brande» A description of the cooperatives, social msui ance and folk high schools in Denmark. Nation« Home Library, 342 pages, 25c. . Folk High Schools of Denmark, Begtrup, W" and Manniche. Revised edition of a P°P" volume on Danish Folk Schools. Oxford " versity Press, 176 pages, $1.00. CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT PEACE • PLENTY- DEMOCRACY Volume XXIII. No. 2 FEBRUARY 1937 Ten Cents EDITORIALS "Cooperation is the tangible expression of brotherhood in action."—E. St. Elmo Lewis. • The "American Dream" looks forward neither to an autocracy of the privileged nor to a dictatorship of the proletariat. » Peace is not made primarily by gov ernments. Peace is made primarily by in dividuals who, in their daily dealings with their neighbors, conduct themselves in such a way as to create good feeling and friendship. Those who want world peace must themselves help build a peace ful personal and economic neighborhood where they live. » The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was told by John C. Parker, Vice-Président of the Consolidated Edi son Company of New York, at its winter convention in New York City on January 27. according to the newspaper account, mat the extension of electric power serv- >ce to the rural areas of the nation, a pro posal which is favored by President Koosevelt, is impractical and needless, 'his ought to encourage those who be- "eve that the only way by which our economic problems can be solved is by the people organizing cooperatives to do so, rather than depending upon the initia tive of private power companies. a We very much doubt the possibility of General Motors thousand-dollars-a-day quartet of executives, who are in charge of the strike situation, settling anything permanently with a group of employees who average less than a thousand dol lars a year. The essence of the General Motors Corporation strike is the question of how the consumers' dollars shall be divided between profits and pay rolls, with the consumers having nothing to say. But eventually they will be the ones who determine how their dollar's are di vided. • 'Late news flashes from Nova Scotia: "1937 looks like the best yet. The study club folks are going to do things this year. We have never been so hopeful.".—A. B. MacDonald, Assistant Director, Exten sion Department, St. F. X. University. "We are getting the miners to under stand that they must be as interested in the organization of the farmers and the voS= t0 spre^d the knowledge of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement, •whereby the people, in Puhr a88001*»11'»', purchase and produce for their own use the things they need. E p' p monthly by The Cooperative League of the U. S. A., 167 West 12th Street, New York City. •_. '• Bower Editor. Wallace J. Campbell, Associate Editor. Contributing Editors: Editors of Cooperative Educational Directors of Cooperative Wholesales and District Leagues. as Second Class Matter, December 19,1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March S, 1879. Price tl.OO a year. Consumers' Cooperation fishermen as they are in their own labor unions. I think we shall have a great come together before long.".—Dr. J. J. Tomp- kins. The Inaugural Address of President Roosevelt indicates an appreciation of the brutal realities of the present eco nomic situation. His concluding summa ry, "I see one-third of a nation ill housed, ill clothed, ill nourished," is, however, an understatement. The Brookings Institu tion study shows that two-thirds rather than one-third, of the families of America receive less than $2,000 a year, which is considered an absolute minimum to cover 'the bare necessities of an average size family. Other statements in the Inaugural address also indicate the President's ability to vision an idealistic future where this black picture will be painted out and every family will have abundance. But we are beyond the place, after seven long years since 1929, of merely picturing the brutal realities of (he present or the ideal possibilities of the future; we are to the place where we must learn more rapidly how to reorganize our distribution system to bridge the gulf be tween the age of scarcity and the age of plenty. Political action can help. But too much political control would eventually result in State dictatorship of one form or another. The necessity, as the President indicated, is to create "moral controls over the service of science," which can only be done by the people organizing themselves into cooperative retail asso ciations, affiliating with wholesales and developing on into production. • In his address before The Cooperative League Congress, Mr. I. H. Hull, Gen eral Manager of the Indiana Farm Bu reau Cooperative Association, made an observation relative to the significance to the farm producers of America of a well- developed consumers' cooperative move ment that was most vital. He indicated that he believed that the farmers of America might even profit more today by a well-organized movement among consumers than by a well-organized movement as producers. This statement, Mr. Hull added, was based upon his ob servations of the results to producers in Stockholm, Sweden, and Edinburgh, Scotland, which he visited on his trip to 18 Europe in 1934, where they were tributing milk for less than half costs in Indianapolis. The statistics which have been pre • ously published in Consumers' Coope '" tion, show that the savings made in fu" distributing cost of milk by the cooper ^ tives in those countries are even m0 " beneficial to the milk producers than f the milk consumers. The milk producer ' Edinburgh, for example, receives 7 cent*1 per quart for his milk, for which the con sumer pays 10% cents after deducting his patronage dividend, or in other words 67%. This is just the reverse of what the milk producer in the United States re ceives under a private-profit milk dis tribution system. We have repeatedly emphasized this point that only by faro producers encouraging and assisting jn the organization of their city consumers into cooperative purchasing associations and the elimination thereby of the middle man-monopoly in processing and dis tributing, will farm producers themselves ever get the prices which they must for their farm products. It is not simply altruism for farmers to encourage and assist in the organization of city con sumers into cooperatives, but practical self-help for themselves as farm pro ducers. • A newspaper report says that Mr. Charles C. Teague, President of the Cali fornia Fruit Growers Exchange, spoke enthusiastically for Agricultural coopera tives before a conference of the National Wholesale Grocers Association, but de clared that .such cooperatives would never sponsor or affiliate with consumers coop eratives. "Never" is a long time. While it is plain that today farm marketing coop eratives cannot affiliate to any great ex tent with city consumers' cooperatives be cause of the fact that there is so limited a development of the latter, we doubt if time will prove that Mr. Teague is a good prophet. We are publishing in this issue of the magazine a story relative to the joint arrangement between the pro ducers' marketing cooperatives and the consumers' purchasing cooperatives m IMalmo, Sweden, covering the handling of milk, which we would predict is a pa ' tern for future relationship between IUK two groups in the processing ai» ® ' tribution of all types of farm products. General Motors Corporation has , oac|cast a statement to the American blic in which it argues that the Pjjrase in the Declaration of Independ- P e "Life, liberty and the pursuit of f p'iness" implies that men possess "the •„alienable right to work." If we accept the interpretation by General Motors that very ^an ^as an inalienable right to work, then it logically follows that busi ness has upon its shoulders the inalien able obligation to provide work for every one. Certainly business must eventually accept its obligation not only to produce plenty but to provide jobs for everybody arid prevent poverty. • The Montgomery County Farm Bu reau Cooperative Association of Souder- town, Pennsylvania, writes requesting free pamphlets on the Consumers' Coop erative Movement to hand out at its bulk plant and also prices on pamphlets to be sold. It should be a part of the work of the employees of a retail cooperative associa tion to sell literature just as much as to sell commodities. If the members are thoroughly educated, which can best be done by individual reading and small group study circles, there will be no ques tion about loyalty of the members to the cooperative association and its business success. The thorough education of the membership is primary to the most suc cessful business development of a coop erative association. • Tentative plans are being laid for a Cooperative Tour to Nova Scotia during next August. Late reports are that 'everything's leaping" up there. Study dubs have increased to some fourteen or fifteen hundred. Credit unions are devel oping out of the study clubs. Cooperative stores are springing up. The suggestion is made by Dr. M. M. Coady, Director o the Extension Department of St. F. X. University, that they might conduct a |hree-day Cooperative Institute the latter half of a week, which would allow the rst °f the week for American visitors to a"lv« there. After the three-day institute, *™ch would give every one a general unoerstanding of cooperative develop ments, the group would spend the follow- "9 week making, tours to the different points where they could meet with the study clubs and see the credit unions, stores, lobster and fish factories, etc.^ which have developed. Then the follow ing week on Tuesday and Wednesday, they would come back to the University and attend the annual conference of study club and cooperative business leaders, which would allow the latter part of the week to return home. This would mean approximately two weeks in Nova Scotia itself from the time of arrival to the time of departure. Those who are interested in taking such a tour should write to The League and further details will be fur nished in due time in the event there is enough interest to warrant arranging for the tour. • Many complimentary expressions have been received relative to the sixteen page Teaching Section on the Cooperative Movement in the January issue of the Journal of the National Education Asso ciation. In Detroit, the Chairman of a Forum who was the principal of a school, stated that 10,000 copies of the Journal had gone into the hands of teachers in that city. 215,000 copies were distributed to subscribers. If the contents of the Co operative Section had been printed sepa rately and mailed to that number of teachers, we would estimate the cost would have been at least $10,000. The effect, however, would not have been anywhere near as great as when the mat ter was incorporated as a part of the magazine itself and carried as a foreword this favorable introductory statement by Joy Elmer Morgan, Editor: "The Cooperative Movement is of the people, by (he people and for the people. It serves every type of human need, both eco nomic and cultural. It thrives in every country where freedom is not entirely destroyed. It •removes the causes of war and of internal' strife. To a world disheartened by unemploy ment and torn by war, it offers a peaceful' pathway toward a better civilization. The Co operative Movement gives people a sense of responsibility for (heir own destinies. It is B- most powerful form of education; people learn by doing; (hey develop faith in themselves and in each other. Tlhe Cooperative Move ment is the practical application of the Golden, Rule; it is (he ultimate democracy." The Cooperative League now has- available reprints of this sixteen page Teaching Unit which can be supplied at a cost of ten cents each. Consumers' Cooperation Ftbruaryf 19 A NEW ADVANCE IN COOPERATIVE EDUCATION (Editor's note: We believe the following to be •one of the most important cooperative education articles we (have ever read. It emphasizes the superiority of study-circles as the best method of member education ever discovered. It is repro duced from the Review of International Coopera tion, December, 1936, to which only a few of our readers are subscribers. We strongly urge the or ganization of study circles by every cooperative association.) IN the field of education new paths are often revealed by rediscovery of old truths. Within the past twelve months signs have been multiplying that in many countries the National Movements have begun to make a new advance towards the solution of that perennial problem, the cooperative education of the rank and file of the members. Led by the trend of events, and forced by current contro versy to seek for the real foundations of order, liberty and democracy in modern life, cooperators have rediscovered the Vital importance of this education, entire ly distinct from propaganda, as a gene rator of the moral and intellectual energy without which cooperative institutions, however firm their economic foundation, can neither stand nor flourish. Evidence for the new advance is discernible in the adoption of a new educational instru ment, the Study Circle, in new definitions of educational aims and objectives, and, in particular, in the desire for an actively participating rather than a passively loyal membership. Furthermore, there are becoming visible broader conceptions of the Movement's educational purpose, which recognize that, apart from the kind of education Cooperation can provide, no satisfactory solution of the most acute problems of modern citizenship is pos sible. Study Circles Proven First, as to the instrument. The Study Circle has now definitely passed beyond the experimental stage. Its practicability has been proved; its advantages are now recognized. The seed cultivated so as- 20 W. P. Watkins, B A Co-author of the QfL', British Text Book "Cooperation» siduously in Sweden and in Nova Scoti has been found capable of transplanta tion, and the organization of Study Cir cles is assuming a role of increasing importance in the Cooperative educa tional schemes of two continents. The work of the St. Francis Xavier Universi ty amongst the farming and fishing popu lation in northern Nova Scotia has been closely studied on the spot and is being enthusiastically emulated by The Coop erative League in the United States. The Swiss Cooperative Union (V.S.K.) after two winters of experiment by two of its Regional Federations, formally adopted the Study Circle as part of its educa tional system by resolution of its 1936 Congress, and is now urging the forma tion of circles in all its affiliated societies. In Denmark, Study Circles are encour aged in the Cooperative Press and as sisted by special publications prepared by the Cooperative School. Among other countries where they have attracted serious attention are Great Britain. Bel gium and Austria, and experimental work is now in progress. Rank and File Education The reasons are clear. There is no other form of organization which offers half so many advantages as the Study Circle, as a means of bringing real co operative education to the mass of the Movement's membership. Its great ad vantage is precisely that it does place education within the reach of the rank and file of the membership in the locali ties where they live and work. lne Movement's educational, no less than its business activities, must have local foun dations. Only an infinitesimal fraction of the membership can sacrifice time ana earnings to be taught in central insütu- tions. , i0 Moreover, Study Circles, since they o not require the presence of a teacher, ^ be organized with comparative ease^ rapidly increased in numbers. Consumers' Cooperatio« the traditional methods of the lecture A class, some National Unions, after anjccade of propaganda for education, 8 n only bring together a few hundred c dents in a few score of centres, the Swedish Union, after three or four years' work with Study Circles, was able to ufflber the circles in thousands, and the participants in tens of thousands. At the Line time, if the foundations are local, there must be a national, or at least, a re- qinal plan °f w°rk, and to this the Study Circle lends itself. The present is no time {or parochial, piecemeal methods of edu cational organization. It is the essence of the problem that the number of active Cooperators should be quickly multiplied tenfold. Much of the apathy imputed to the membership is not so much indif ference as passivity, due to the fact that they have never been shown how, apart from loyalty in purchasing and saving, they can exert themselves on behalf of their Society and the cause of Coopera tion in general. Cooperation in Education The superiority of the Study Circle, however, does not rest on numbers alone, but also on the quality of the education it provides. Cooperative organizations which still fear to exchange the lecture and class for the Study Circle on grounds of efficiency, are clinging to the shadow and rejecting the substance. Discussion, the method of learning adopted in Study Circles, is cooperation in education, whereby much more is learned than the subjects comprised in the syllabus. While it is necessary that the members should learn about Cooperation, it is even more important that they should learn to co operate, that is to work together success fully for common ends. Over and above the fact the participants master their sub ject more thoroughly because they collect their own information and their state ments are subject to criticism and contra diction from their comrades, they benefit «om the self-discipline which successful group activity imposes. It is because group study is an active quest for knowl- edge and enlightenment that it forms, as experience has shown in Nova Scotia, the Oest preparation for useful practical work " the formation and administration of ^operative Societies. Trains Candidates for Leadership No less important is the contribution which Study Circles can make to the problems of leadership. Most of the Na tional Movements recognize the necessity for training officers and office-holders. Not all of them, however, have yet fully grasped that this training ought to begin before, and not after, their election. In other words, the aim should be to in crease the number of eligible candidates. Here again, experience has shown that the Study Circles can discover and devel op the appropriate kind of leadership. A correspondent of The London Times, in a remarkable article contributed to its Educational Supplement the 1st of Au gust, 1936, describing the work of the St. Francis Xavier University, wrote: "The University Extension Department is out to develop a Cooperative Com monwealth ~ and the leaders of this Movement must corae from the people. Its organizers believe that there is a mass of undiscovered leadership among the common people, and that the way to make it visible and operative is to educate the people, old and young. Leadership, they say, is lacking merely because of the absence of opportunity. The place to be gin for those of good intent is at their own doors, "and they must learn to act with and for others while they do their own thinking!" The Ohio Farm Bureau, in its pamphlet on the organization of discussion groups, has illustrated by means of amusing caricatures the three undesirable types and the one effective type of group leader. These are respec tively the dictator, who expects the mem bers to recognize his natural superiority; the lecturer, who is over-anxious to pour information into the minds of the group; the mirror type, who is agreeable, un critical, non-committal and reflects back to the members the contributions they have made; and finally, the truly cooper ative leader, who gives and takes, im parting direction to discussion by ques tions and suggestions, and who has patience with slow results because he is more concerned that the group seeks the way to the cooperative solution of the problem then that the members shall dis tinguish themselves individually. These types of leadership may be easily recog nized in many other spheres of social life than Study Circles, but it is precisely be- 21 cause the latter bring the problems of leadership so clearly into focus that they form so valuable a means of cooperative and civic training. Pills Need Not Supplied by Press and Platform The Cooperative Movement has often been inclined to rely too much for the education of its members upon the effect of its press and propaganda activities. That both of these, while serving other purposes, make contributions of educa tional value, is obvious. It is significant, liowever, that the two National Move ments in Europe which have so far most enthusiastically adopted the Study Circle, already possessed excellent cooperative technical and family journals circulating amongst virtually the whole of their membership, besides carrying on efficient propaganda work by means of films and other up-to-date methods. Something more concentrated, systematic and last ing in its effects than propaganda meet ings and the casual reading of journals is necessary. This is what the Study Circle •supplies. Moreover, the work of the press only yields its full value when there are eager and active minds waiting to receive and apply the idea which the journals discuss week by week, and month by month. As experience in both Sweden and Nova Scotia shows, the study groups provide the press with an increasingly intelligent circle of readers, while the journals furnish the groups with the fresh information which gives their studies life and actuality. In addition, the needs of the Study Circles are calling into exist ence a new type of cooperative literature. This comprises not only the study- guides, complete with outline, questions and references required for the courses, but also small handbooks which give a brief but comprehensive view of an im portant aspect of Cooperation. Larger and less summary in their treatment of the subject than a pamphlet, they are not so exhaustive as most of the standard treatises and text books formerly used, and enable the student to acquire a firm •grasp of the elements of the subject with out being overwhelmed with details. Combines the Practical and Ideal The problem of every kind of coopera tive education is to discover the right 22 blend of the theoretical with the practical of the ideal with the technical. So far ' the membership is concerned, the aim fS be kept in view is first, an understandin° of the fundamental principles of Coopp ation, and second, training in the prone" discharge of the members' functions1 which naturally include service on one o' another of the committees, not of the local society alone, but even of National Federations. The first requires keen and logical thinking, the second an acquaint ance with the structure of the Movement and the technique of its administration What the Movement needs, and what the Study Circles can do much to supply, js members who can both think for them selves and act effectively in concert, be cause they know when to subordinate the claims of the individual or section to the welfare of the whole. It may not be pos sible to imbue the whole membership with the same degree of practical wisdom and social responsibility, but the aim of the cooperative educationist must be to create in every locality a nucleus of members who possess these qualities and whose in fluence shall be pervasive and dominant. This nucleus will not form, like the guar dians in Plato's "Republic," a specialized caste with a monopoly of leadership, since the existence of Study Circles open to every member alike will ensure that it will be continually recruited and renewed from the rank and file of Cooperators. Maintains Democratic Control It is along lines such as these that the cooperative educationist can best make his contribution to the maintenance of the democratic character of the Move ment. This is no easy task, as the Move ment's economic expansion constantly de mands an increasing centralization of authority and a more complex adminis tration. The problem, however, cannot be solved merely by amendments to statutes. The most skillfully drafted constitution can be destroyed by ignorance, faction, and disloyalty to principle. Education must advance in scope and efficiency step by step with economic development, so that the Movement demonstrates ever more clearly the ability of the common people to control wisely the factors ol their own welfare. At the present time, when democratic ideals both in govern ment and industry are suffering from tn ftacks of authoritarian systems and the of democrats to work together, '?a e can be scarcely a better means of ' fequarding the future of Cooperation j £jje democratic principle than a new Avance in cooperative education along ft, lin£S 'here indicated. Cooperation, democracy, and liberty can only flourish in the modern world where the people have learned to direct the economic and administrative mechanism on which their livelihood and well-being depend. Study Circles are an economical and effective means to that end. MALMÖ, SWEDEN, SOLVES ITS MILK DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM (Editor'8 note: The question of the solution of the milk distribution problem in suclh a way as to pay fair prices to producers and charge fair prices to consumers is one of the burning questions in fte United States. Mr. James C. Norgaard, Gen eral Manager, Nebraska Farmers Union Cream eries, was a member of the 1936 Cooperative League Tour to Europe. He has written an article in the Nebraska Union Farmer of January 13, in which he describes in detail the successful solution of the milk question by joint organization of pro ducers' marketing and consumers' purchasing co operatives in Malmö, Sweden. It goes without say ing that a similar solution cannot be arrived at in the case of American cities until consumers' coop erative purchasing groups develop to the extent whereby they can make similar joint arrangements with producers' cooperative marketing ciroups. However, in addition to tihe outstanding illustra tion of the large Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association of Minneapolis, there are smaller illus trations, such as the cooperatives at Waukegan and Evanston, Illinois, and elsewhere, where similar arrangements to that described below in the case of Malmö, Sweden, have been made be tween city consumers' cooperative groups and farm producers' cooperative groups. JT has always been a question in the ••• cooperative movement how the con sumers' and producers' associations can establish working connections. This is a ticklish problem. Naturally, the consumer wants to buy from producers as cheaply as possible, and the producers to sell as »iflh as possible. In Sweden, as in some other countries, there has been, and is yet. quite a problem as to where con sumer cooperation ends and producer co- operi.tion begins. In Malmö, a city in the southern part Sweden, the cooperative consumer so ciety purchased a dairy and began dis tributing the milk through its stores, while the farmers' cooperative society naa a dairy in Malmö, delivering milk to Consumers' Cooperation ^bruary, 1937 James C. Norgaard General Manager Nebraska Farmers Union Creameries the consumers in that city. The result was a lively battle and low prices of milk to the consumers. Inasmuch as the con sumers owned the dairy, they lost money, and the farmers who were selling to their own organization also lost money. This condition brought about a meet ing of the two organizations, and they solved the problem by organizing a creamery company, taking over both plants. A half interest was owned by the consumer cooperative society, and the other half interest was owned by the pro ducer cooperative society, To the com mittee of the joint concern, the con sumers' and the farmers' association each elect four representatives, the manager also having a seat on the board. The share capital has also been equally con tributed by the two sides. Equal Rights—Equal Responsibility The terms of the agreement provide that neither party need give up its inde pendence, but both enter the undertaking with the same rights and equal responsi bilities. According to the agreement, the original concerns are rented by the Milk Central for a period of 10 years against leases that well provide for interest and depreciation, and which contribute to a fund for the redemption of the separate undertakings after the 10-year period, should joint working then be discontin ued. Prices for the farmers' supplies are ar ranged on a sliding scale in relation to the butter quotation, while one-third of the Milk Central's trading surplus also 23 goes to the farmers in the form of a sup plementary payment. One-third of the trading surplus goes to the consumers, and one-third is allocated to a reserve fund. Five years' activity has consolidated the Milk Central as Malmö's largest dai ry undertaking. From 48,000 liters (12,- 700 gallons) per day in 1929, the total supplies rose to 55,000 liters (14,575 gal lons) per day in 1933, and there has been continued progress since that. Of real importance is the harmony which the undertaking has brought about between the consumers and produce who share the direction and profits QS' the one hand, the consumers have ob* tained better and cheaper milk. On th" other hand, the producers have an a$ sured market, and equal share in th" savings. Through the Malmö arrangement, th greatest possible measure of justice is sg6 cured for both sides, not by dictation from one or the other, but by straight forward business relations, with the con sumers and producers on an equal foot- ing. THE TRIPLE PROGRAM OF THE BRITISH LABOR MOVEMENT (An epitome of an address delivered at a forum in Tampa, Florida, by George Gibson, one of the two British delegates to the 1936 A. F. of L. Con vention, member of the General Council of the British Trade Union Congress, and member of the National Council of Labour. The day will come in America, when labor leaders will discuss equally as fluently the organi zation of workers as consumers to control prices as the organization of workers as producers to control pay. In the meanwhile, we are happy to have British labor leaders such as Mr. George Gibson visit America and challenge American labor leadership as to the significance of the con sumers cooperative movement. Arrangements for the address delivered by Mr. Gibson, which he has kindly epitomized for Consumers' Cooperation, were made by James Myers, Industrial Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America.) THE British Labour Movement in its contemporary work acts in three fields. In the industrial field through Trade Union organization; in the political field through the Labour Party; and in the economic field through the Coopera tive Societies. It was not deliberately de signed in this fashion; rather like "Top- sy," it grew, and it shaped itself to meet changing conditions and altered circum stances. The Trade Union Movement The British Trade Union Movement has been the creator of each of these forms of Labour activity, and the Trade Union Movement itself was a gradual evolution from the early forms of craft protection. Working class combinations 24 George Gibson Member of the General Council British Trade Union Congress existed in Great Britain from the time of the Guilds, and in the eighteenth century protective organization was found amongst a considerable number of the skilled trades, but during the period of the industrial revolution when the factory system was growing, the gospel of trades unionism found acceptance amongst the factory operatives and coal miners of the North of England. In spite of severe at tempts at repression and tyrannical punishment, the Unions maintained their existence even when on occasion driven to meet in secret, and there are several British Trade Unions with long and honourable histories whose written rec ords recall these days of oppression. The National Union of Vehicle Builders rec ords that its members have, during the Union's existence, built every kind of conveyance from the sedan chair to the aeroplane. The Beginning of Cooperation The trade unions within the limits of their powers, and by the policy of col lective bargaining, did muc'h to raise the standard of living of their members, but they found that wage value depends not upon the number of dollars or pounds a person gets, but on what he can purchase with his dollars. Trade Unionists found that the dis tribution of the goods and services pro duced by labour led to the accumulation Consumers' Cooperation t wealth on the one hand and to re- • ted consumption on the other; and, strlCefflbering the pioneer efforts of Ro- 'em. Qwen, twenty-eight poor weavers Rochdale, Lancashire, founded the p hda'le Equitable Pioneer's Society in ir° d Lane, Rochdale, where they ened on Christmas Eve, 1844. The broad general principles of the Society (which are now historic) were to buy nods at wholesale prices, to sell to mem- jjers at market prices, and to distribute the surplus (after allowing a fixed pay ment for capital) as a discount on pur- hases. Full weight and measure had to he qiven, highest qualities maintained, fair conditions of labour guaranteed, and an allocation made from the funds for educational purposes. From the one pio neer society has sprung the immense Co operative Movement of today, but to this I will return later. The British Labour Party The great Londo:-: Dock Strike of 1889, the strike for 6d. an hour ("The Docker's tanner") led by Ben Tillett, Harry Or- bell, Tom Mann and John Burns, and the great trade union movement amongst the Gas-workers led by Will Thorne widened the whole basis of trade union ism which spread to the great mass of unskilled and semi-skilled labour and to a quickening of the pulse of Trade Union ism and a desire for social legislation. In 1899 a resolution was carried at the British Trade Union Congress "for the purpose of devising ways and means for securing an increased number of Labour members to the next Parliament." The special Congress was held on February 27th, 1900, a resolution was carried in favour of a "distinct Labour Group in Parliament," and so the Labour Party was formed. In 1906 twenty-nine Labour members were returned, and the years between 1906 and 1914, saw a mass of social legislation passed, all designed to improve *e lot of the working class. Since 1919, 'he Labour Party has twice taken office, buj it has never yet held office with an independent majority such as all of us nope for. . The Trinity of Labour is allied closely ™ all activities. The Council of Labour, *tach represents the Labour Party, the rarliamentary Labour Party, and the F«bruary, 1937 Trades Union